Career (Complete) Guido Goes for Goals. (A Late Bloomer Challenge)

[Aaron Thornton]

(Guido Goes for Goals)< that's your hint for this challenge, well I say hint, I'm going to reveal season 1 and the player further down this post so your time is limited to guess who it is. 

 

What does Guido mean? (for those who don't know) 

Guido is a given name Latinised from the Old High German name Wido. It originated in Medieval Italy. ... The meaning of the name is debated, with various sources indicating the Germanic "Wido" means "wood" and others connecting the Italian form "Guido" to the latinate root for "guide".

This is what Wikipedia tells us it means, for this though, pay attention to 'Wido' and 'Wood' more over where does wood come from? Your last hint is this 'Route One'

 

The man who made him infamous:

It's everyones favourite Pork Crackling faced Dutchman, Louis Van Gaal! 

The Player:

It's Marouane 'Guido' Fellaini, of course. Attributes below:

Spoiler

The target of much criticism in his Man United day's, most of it was very undeserved, he played how his managers told him, (David Moyes and LVG) the former appearing way out of his depth in the Old Trafford dugout, the latter, well, playing the slowest possession based football your ever likely to see, then resorting to route one football in the dying embers of the game, anyway enough on the dark ages at Old Trafford. 

 

Fellaini arrives having scored 46 career goals, meaning our target would be 101, and yes just like Van Gaal he will playing up top, with his stellar strength and aerial ability, being the deciding factors on what role to play him as, a lone Target Man. 

 

I really tried to prize Fellaini out of China and into one of the Top European clubs, but no matter who I tried, his wage demands were always more than I could offer, so alas we stick with Shandong Luneng. 

 

Season 1:

Our quest for 101 goals begins here:

 

Transfers:

In:

Out:

A lot of new faces arriving, with a handful heading out the door. South America being a happy hunting ground for cheap stars by China's standards. David Soria, Bruno Martins Indi and Erik Durm all being wonderkids in years gone by, none of which hit the heights expected at a young age, the latter though still quite youthful with time on his side. I won't talk about all the incomings or we'd be here all day. But, the picks of the signings, has to be Quintero, Fagner and Villa all arriving from South America and all possessing great quality at any level of the beautiful game. 

 

Competitions:

Spoiler

• A straight forward league campaign, losing just one game
• We beat Hebei CF, 1-0 in both legs of the Chinese FA Cup
• We won the AFC Champions League, 4-2 on aggregate
• We lost to Liverpool, 1-0 the Club World Cup semi final, but won the 3rd place playoff, 4-1,with Guido grabbing two

A strong trophy haul in Season 1, with Liverpool being the only stumbling block in a match where we held our own but just lacked a bit of quality up top. 

 

Marouane Fellaini:

One injury this season, broken shoulder for one month! That magic spray, really is magic.

 Start of season:

End of season:

A +2 for Aggression, that's the Fellaini I remember, those flailing elbows were never accidental. Apart from that not much growth or depletion, with just decisions going up to 14 then dropping back to 13 before the end of the season. 

 

Guidos Performance:

Spoiler

65 goals in 48 games! A strong showing from an unconventional forward, Felli done well. This game being his best single game haul:

Hitting six in the Semi final of the FA Super Cup. 

 

The Tree blossomed in China, powering in a strong total and setting our sights on an even stronger second season, hopefully. 

 

65/101 goals. 

36 goals needed

 

A massive thanks to anyone who read all of this as it is pretty long, but with FMM 2021 on the horizon, I needed something to kill time and make the wait a bit more bearable. Good day to you all. 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Aaron Thornton

[Rich]

Nice choice for this challenge mate, never got around to managing in China, will definitely try there next year. He smashed that season out go the park, really impressive score, he will finish this next season for sure 😁

[Aaron Thornton]

Thanks mate, it's dumb fun 😂 you don't really have to do anything groundbreaking to succeed in China, with the huge budgets and lack of foreign player restrictions, it makes it very straightforward, still a fun league to manage in regardless.

I've an idea for a challenge, sign Fellaini in Season 1, I swear to god, i tried Barca, Everton, Liverpool, Real Madrid, PSG, Man U, Bayern, Man City and Chelsea, none of these teams would allow me to offer his extortionate wages, I think he wants (if I remember correctly) like 550k a week and won't settle for any less than 450k 😂 it's ridiculous, if P$G can't even persuade him, then I don't know whats going on in his head

[FuddledFox]

Great start and this man is buzzing about seeing Fellaini getting some love.

[Aaron Thornton]

2 hours ago, FuddledFox said:

Great start and this man is buzzing about seeing Fellaini getting some love.

I sure he is and I bet he thinks he should get the credit for it 😂

Thanks for the support Fox or is it Mr Fuddled now? 

[Aaron Thornton]

Season 2:

36 goals needed from Fellaini, to earn himself a spot on the coveted Late Bloomer leaderboard, here's how we got on:

 

Transfers:

Lenglet arrives as possibly the best player China has ever witnessed in the flesh, £65 mil from Barca, he takes Martins Indi place as our 1st choice BPD, Haller will play backup to Guido, Dilrosun makes the LW role his own, while Mbabu comes in to rotate with the ever present Fagner. Barreiro and McKennie add quality in depth to the midfield on season long loan deals. 

 

Competitions:

Spoiler

• Unbeaten league season, 82 points
• Shock horror, we lost to Wuhan Zall, 2-1 in the FA Super Cup
• Persepolis were taught a lesson in the AFC CL, we hammer them 7-1 over two legs with Guido grabbing 4
• We beat DL Pro in the Super Cup, 3-1, Felli scoring a brace
• Complete domination against Barca of all teams in the CWC final and yet we lost 1-0, De Jong scoring the decisive goal with Barcas only attempt, 10 shots to 1 but when we don't take our chances, we can't complain

 

Marouane Fellaini:

Notable matches:

Spoiler

Not quite the 6 goal single game haul Marouane managed in season 1, but two 4 goal hauls this year and the hat trick below sealed his place on the Late Bloomer leaderboard:

Spoiler

He played the match with fractured ribs, but that is no excuse for big Felli, bagging his 100th, 101st and 102nd goals for us, wrapping up the challenge. 

Spoiler

His final season total being an impressive 57 goals in 38 games, scoring 1.5 GpG for the season, very good output from the now 32 Yr old. 

 

Final manager stats:

 

122/101 goals. COMPLETE

101 goals in 74 games. 

 

 @FuddledFox could add me and Guido to the leaderboard please mate.

 

Thanks for reading. 😊

[Kanegan]

Fantastic little career mate. Making Fellaini enjoyable to read is one thing I thought never could have happened but you nailed it. 

[Aaron Thornton]

5 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Fantastic little career mate. Making Fellaini enjoyable to read is one thing I thought never could have happened but you nailed it. 

Thanks mate, I had to give Felli his last hurrah in the spotlight, though something tells me he will feature for Belgium at Euro '2020' played in 2021 🤷‍♂️ Martinez seems to like him so watch this space. 

[Scratch]

Great job mate, really smashed it! You got some really good players in, amazing what you can do in the Chinese league. Now I want to go start a save there - I'm gonna have to stop reading your careers, every time it makes me want to quit my current save and do what you're doing! 🤣

 

[Aaron Thornton]

6 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Great job mate, really smashed it! You got some really good players in, amazing what you can do in the Chinese league. Now I want to go start a save there - I'm gonna have to stop reading your careers, every time it makes me want to quit my current save and do what you're doing! 🤣

 

Sorry...Or...Thanks, I think 😂😂 

The Chinese seasons fly in with just 30 league games a season, although the cups sort of make up for it with two legs in the AFC final and the semi finals of the domestic cup. Its a fun league to manage in, get to splash the cash on players you've probably never used in most cases, for me that's the best bit about managing their